Click 'n Paint

There is only one bedroom in the house that has yet to be painted since we moved in a year ago. Tonight that will change and its walls will transform from beige to a deep peacock blue. Crown molding will be installed as well, but that won't happen until my husband can assist since he is the trim guru.

Here's how the room currently looks:

I really wanted to use a dark blue but wasn't sure if a deep tone would work in such a small room. So, before buying the paint, I played around with Benjamin Moore's Personal Color Viewer 3.0 (the paint I got is not BM...it's Behr, but their "Paint Your Place" application wasn't working very well). 

Depending on the photo you upload, the Color Viewer takes some maneuvering. Once you learn how to set the paint areas, it's smooth sailing from there. The fun part is clicking through the paint chips and testing any or all of them without getting a brush dirty. Ultimately, the tool confirmed my inclination to use blue, but it was nice to see how different shades would look in the space.

The color I chose - Behr Restless Sea UL230-23

Here's a simulation of the paint in action. I'll report back with the actual "after" photo!

The two images below served as inspiration. I fell in love with this wall color in the Austin boutique, Mercury and have been dying to use it.

A similar shade was put to work in West Elm's catalog. They used a color from their Benjamin Moore collection, ben. It's called Newburg Green.

Mercury Rising...at least in Austin

I live in Dallas, which means that today it's almost 70 degrees and yesterday there was snow on the ground. Our weather is notoriously unpredictable, but hopefully that was the last cold spell of the season. I got spoiled when we were in Austin last weekend and it was warm and sunny. I'm so ready for consistent poolside conditions!

Speaking of Austin, we stopped in the most fabulous shop during our visit. It's called Mercury and I was in heaven perusing their funky-chic merchandise. They sum up the store concept on their business card as artifacts, gifts, and design studio. Here's a sampling...

This book nook is the coolest.

Art-o-Mat (guarded by a stuffed fox) is a brilliant concept. Basically, retired cigarette machines are converted to art vending machines. There are only 82 machines in the US, most are in museums and galleries.

I'm sure you'll be shocked, but I'm obsessed with this black and white accent wall. Trying to figure out where it could work in our house.

Missoni-eque chair.

They have the Temple of Flora book! This is the source for many of the framed botanical prints around our house.

Needlepoint zebra chair + Thomas Paul pillow.

What a great centerpiece this pedestal bowl would make!

Patent, tufting, cane, Greek key, and black/white all in one pic! I would take it all aside from the skunk. I can only imagine what my dogs would do to a piece of taxidermy.

Turquoise and orange phones...so cute. After dealing with the insane amount of calls my cell phone drops, I wouldn't mind going back to the good old days of corded telephones!

For purchasing inquires, check out their website or call 512.236.0100.